How to move your Raindrop bookmarks to tinykoi

To import Raindrop bookmarks into tinykoi, export a CSV from Raindrop, open Settings in tinykoi, choose Raindrop (CSV) under Import and export, and upload the file. Folders become nested collections, and tags, notes, favourites, covers, dates and highlights come along.

The steps take a few minutes for a normal library. This guide covers the export, the import, exactly what is carried over, and the few things that are not.

Before you start

Your Raindrop library is not touched by any of this. Exporting reads it, and tinykoi only imports from the file you give it. You can stop at any point and nothing is lost.

You need a tinykoi account. The free plan is enough, because import works on both plans. If you are still deciding, read the tinykoi vs Raindrop comparison first.

Step 1: Export from Raindrop

Raindrop's backup help page describes two routes.

Everything at once. Go to Settings, then Backups, and click Create new. Wait for the email notification, then download the files from the same page. This covers bookmarks, collections, tags, highlights and notes. It does not include uploaded files such as PDFs and images.

One collection, or a selection. Open the collection and click Export, then choose a format. You can also tick specific bookmarks and click Export in the toolbar.

Whichever you choose, pick CSV. Raindrop also offers HTML, a standard browser bookmarks file, and tinykoi can import that as browser bookmarks. The Raindrop CSV import is the one built around Raindrop's columns, including favourites, covers and highlights.

If you have uploaded files in Raindrop, download them separately. Raindrop's help says you can do that from All bookmarks with Export, then ZIP.

Step 2: Import Raindrop bookmarks into tinykoi

1. Sign in to tinykoi and open Settings.
2. Find the Import and export section.
3. In the Import from menu, choose Raindrop (CSV).
4. Choose your CSV file. Import files can be up to 50 MB.
5. Click Import.

tinykoi uploads the file and starts the import, then shows progress as it goes, for example "Imported 840 of 860. 20 skipped." Large libraries are processed in batches of 500, so a big file takes a few minutes.

If you also have a browser bookmarks file, you can import it afterwards from the same menu by choosing Browser bookmarks (HTML).

What carries over

tinykoi reads the columns of Raindrop's CSV by name. For each row it brings across:

• The link, with its title and excerpt.
• Folders, as collections. A folder path like Work/Clients becomes a collection called Clients inside Work. Nesting is kept up to eight levels deep.
• Tags, including several tags on one bookmark.
• Notes you wrote on a bookmark.
• Favourites, which stay favourites.
• Cover images, when the CSV has a valid web address for one.
• The date you saved it, so your library keeps its history. A missing or future date is replaced with the import time.
• Highlights, with their notes. Raindrop's export writes them as Highlight: and Note: lines in one cell, and tinykoi turns each into a highlight with its note.

Raindrop's Unsorted collection does not become a collection in tinykoi. Those bookmarks go to tinykoi's inbox, where bookmarks without a collection live.

What does not carry over

• Uploaded files. Raindrop's backup does not include them, and the CSV only holds links. Re-upload them to tinykoi if you want them. The free plan allows 100 MB of uploads a month and Pro allows 10 GB.
• Raindrop's saved copies of pages. The import brings the link, not Raindrop's archive of it. On Pro, tinykoi makes its own archived copy of each page afterwards.
• Shared collections. tinykoi has no shared workspaces, so every collection arrives as your own.

Duplicates and bad rows

• A link you already have. If a link already exists in tinykoi, or appears twice in the file, only one copy is kept. Running the import twice is safe.
• A row without a valid web address. Anything that is not an http or https link is skipped and counted in the "skipped" figure.

If the file is not a Raindrop CSV, the import fails with a message asking you to check that it is a Raindrop (CSV) export. The cause is usually a file picked from the wrong source.

There are rate limits as well. You can start 10 imports an hour and have at most two in progress at once, so do not upload a dozen collections as separate files in a few minutes. Export everything in one go instead.

After the import

tinykoi fetches each imported page in the background for its title, excerpt and cover. Imports are processed behind your own saves, so saving new pages stays quick while it works.

On Pro, tinykoi then queues archived copies of the imported pages and works through them in the background. A very large library can take a while to finish.

A few quick checks:

1. Open the collections list and check the nesting looks right.
2. Search for a phrase you remember from a page. Full-text search works on the free plan too.
3. Open a bookmark that had highlights and confirm they are there.

Keeping your options open

Nothing stops you running both tools for a while. For a wider look first, see our Raindrop alternatives roundup. If link decay is your reason for moving, link rot explains what archived copies fix.

You can export your tinykoi library as HTML or CSV from the same Settings section whenever you like, so moving is never one way. Uploaded files are not part of that export. Compare plans on pricing and features on the features page.

Import your library now

Create a free account, no card needed, and import your CSV. Pro is only worth adding if you want archived copies.